Maple Bacon Ice Cream

When I first saw candied bacon ice cream, I knew I had to try it. However, reading over the recipe, it seemed like it was missing something. Like maple flavor! I always love it when I have pancakes and bacon on the same plat, and the bacon gets coated with maple syrup.So, I candied some bacon the way David Lebovitz instructs, then I mixed up some maple ice cream. Mix them together and what do you get? A surprisingly tasty ice cream!As a side note – I didn’t cut the bacon up into small enough pieces, so some of them were a little chewy in the ice cream. I also think I could have left the bacon in the oven just a little longer to make it more crisp, but I was paranoid about the sugar burning.

Bring the half and half and maple syrup to a simmer in a medium saucepan.Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a medium bowl.Whisking constantly, pour about half the heated half and half mixture into the eggs, then transfer everything back into the saucepan. Add a pinch of salt.Continue whisking as you cook the mixture over medium-low. Remove from heat when it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.Chill in the refrigerator, or set in an ice bath and cool, stirring occasionally. Once cool, transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers instructions.Just before you are ready to stop the ice cream maker, mix in the bacon.Transfer the ice cream to a container and put in the freezer to chill completely.

NOTE: After a night in the freezer, the bacon flavor kind of overwhelmed the maple…so I will try only 2 or 3 pieces of bacon, chopped fine, in my next batch.